Until now Microsoft was in the business of developing platforms. Take any MS product - even the Office set of products are actually development platforms with scripting languages and COM servers.

This is really great, because it allows anybody that has an idea for product or how to improve the existing application can do it with very little investment (money and time). If the goal is to make money, create the application and post it wherever you decide is good from marketing prospective. It is your decision and your responsibility for your application to be a success or complete failure.

On the other hand you have Apple. Closed structure and a platform that is tied to a specific hardware. If you want to develop for that platform, you will have to pay annual fees for access to SDKs. Also, the moment your application is ready to face the world, there is only one place to sell it, like it or not - the Apple store. More...

Until now Microsoft was in the business of developing platforms. Take any MS product - even the Office set of products are actually development platforms with scripting languages and COM servers.

This is really great, because it allows anybody that has an idea for product or how to improve the existing application can do it with very little investment (money and time). If the goal is to make money, create the application and post it wherever you decide is good from marketing prospective. It is your decision and your responsibility for your application to be a success or complete failure.

On the other hand you have Apple. Closed structure and a platform that is tied to a specific hardware. If you want to develop for that platform, you will have to pay annual fees for access to SDKs. Also, the moment your application is ready to face the world, there is only one place to sell it, like it or not - the Apple store. More...